Thinking of bombs from Islamabad to Mumbai

Anyone who lives in Islamabad will recall the moment they heard the explosion of a suicide truck bomb that killed 55 people at the Marriott Hotel on a Saturday night in September.

Sitting in their homes, watching television, having supper, putting their children to sleep, they were physically hit by the shockwave.

The cause was unmistakable. The sight of flames leaping from the windows of a place where we had all dined, met contacts, and attended conferences was chilling.

A month later, I left a depressed Islamabad for a week’s leave. Many of the foreigners and their families had left the Pakistani capital for good. I just went to India for a break to
see colleagues and old friends I first met in the late 1990s during an earlier assignment.

Living in a city spooked by security scares and covering bomb blast after bomb blast inevitably results in a certain morbidity.

As I visited old haunts in Delhi and Mumbai, thevulnerability of India’s beautiful hotels was all too obvious.

I told my friends that I feared it would only be a matter of time before the five star hotels were targeted.

The militants had hitherto mostly sought to create panic and mayhem by attacking the general population as they shopped at bazaars or travelled on public transport.

India’s luxury hotels are centres of excellence, they are masters of hospitality, full of grace and style. They are where elites and foreign businessmen and wealthy tourists go.

Security at the Taj Mahal hotel in Mumbai had tightened when I visited in early November.

The side and back entrances, which journalists often use, were closed, and the only way in was via the main front entrance.

I passed by the elegant, colonnaded swimming pool, and thought how easy it would be for someone to toss a grenade over the wall from the street behind. as they did at Islamabad’sLuna Caprese restaurant in March.

A few years ago there was an explosion at a taxi rank opposite the Taj, where the road curls round by the Gateway of India. After that, I think taxis were barred from dropping passengers on the covered concourse apron at the foot of the steps to the lobby.

Since then the hotel management took a further step, introducing a security check at the entrance to the concourse from the road that visitors on foot would pass through.

It seemed rather thin protection for someone used to hotels in Pakistan. I walked past the Taj and the Oberoi on Nariman Point, and I thought of the truck bomb filled with explosives,
spiked with aluminium powder that created the inferno at the Marriott.

The results were devastating even though the truck never made it past the entrance from the road thanks to a retractable steel barrier that rises out of the ground to stop vehicles entering freely before being checked.

And then I thought how the security industy’s infrastructure would
change the landscape of India’s porous cities when their enemies shifted targets.

Only an extreme solution to an extreme act. The world should implement a law that when a terrorist acts against innocent civilians the perpetrators should have their whole clan abolished. This will make the terrorist think twice before they act, the innocent civilians they murder paid back by the perpetrators own innocent clan members by abolishing them all. No military interventions required and no countries to invade. The clan takes the brunt of the responsibility. All other solutions to this scourge hasn’t work from any Government. I guarantee this will work! Stop terrorism once and for all.

Renato, that seems like fighting terrorism with terrorism. Aren’t those clan members innocent civilians too! Think of a better solution. What about those who do not have clans! How are you going to deter them? To me, we all need very honest analysis of why some people get to this level of anger, and commit such atrocities!? Look at the root causes, and treat the root causes, and the symptoms will disappear. Treating the symptoms in a reactionary manner will not solve anything!

It is an excruciting for all of us to see this kind of horor. However, we forget to realize that India was colonized by British for at least 150 years. There are lots of freedom fighters grand-children. They will never like to see any foreigners in their lands. Also we need to put in consideration that they might not have well treated and respected.They have strong feeling that the country is belong to them because their grand-fathers fought for it.

According to me, certain vested interests are targeting the most vulnerable sections of our society and using their social and economical weaknesses to incite such atrocities. These people are being brain washed to believe that what they are is something noble and it is very essential. I feel that the only way out of this is to ensure that every single person is educated and given a honest means of livelihood.

“KAMA” we have so many morons like you thats why India is so weak in fighting radicalism. We need to get rid of people like you are the ones that hinder progress to tackle radicalism. India has no hard law to combat terrorism because people (politicians) like you block all the laws from being passed in India.

What happened was sad but ask yourself what caused the creation of such people with such hatred of the people and/or the govt they intend to kill or destroy?

Kashmir is a beautiful place of mostly Muslims who are regularly killed and arrested and held without cause. Just in March 2008 unmarked graves of over 1000 people were discovered and linked to killings by the police and military in the area. If you try to find the great investigation or media coverage don’t hold your breath, it was minimal. Not a single arrest or major investigation by the Indian govt. Over 8000 Kashmiris are missing in the last 10 years…about 350 ppl never made it out alive after being arrested in the last few years, and over 150 were never heard from again after being arrested for no reason.

If you think about what you would do if you can’t get a govt’s or media’s attention with these sort of numbers…it’s hard to imagine what an individual may do until he or she is put into that situation.

Don’t get me wrong, what happened was disgusting…it says in the Quran that the killing of 1 person is like the killing of all mankind…but who do we blame for allowing such a situation to occur? After all we are just human and if you are treated like an animal you eventually show that side of yourself. Remember every action has a reaction, all actions have reprecussions and sadly in this case they were paid by innocent civilians.

It all started with British, the trouble makers of the world. They could have left India as one intact country, but wanted to create some small peices which they can exploit later. India is at a very important turning point. She need to make very independent and intelligent decision. Mahatma Gandhi and Nehry were smart to keep India as a non-aligned country for a reason. It was wise. Now our leaders think that they are smarter than our freedom fighters.

Dear Sidney, Kama and Others
First things first so lets talk about Kashmir, Kashmir acceded to India, that is it joined Indian Union when it was attacked by millitants from across the border then it was the Indian Army and soldiers who laid their lives to protect them. All of you see the atrocities done by the army but none of you ever mention the atrocities on kashmiri pandits , why? is that not ethnic cleansing?? were they not displaced from their homes, were their daughters not raped in front of their eyes… I hate when pseudo intellectuals like you talk of human right and want to enforce it only on the army. Nothing i repeat Nothing no matter what cause justfies killing of innocent individuals … when Sidney says that kashmir is the reason for India being targeted then what about USA 9/11?? what about London? what about bombings in spain and russia. Nothing justifies religious fundamentalism and intolerance. I pity people like Sidney who are sitting far away from ground realities and try and spread false ideologies, nowhere minorities are protected more than they are protected in India, this discontent in because of the poision being fed to young minds on false, distoted and polarized information.

This is a act of terror, We have very good experience of Terrorism in our country.Anywhere in the wrold happened this type things can not be justify. Therefore we should unit to eradicate Terrorism. If it is happenig in the India everybody says act of Terrorsim, but in Sri Lanka everybody in the world says it will be gross violation of Human Rights by the Government of Sri Lanka. Now we have take this as a good lesson and try to destroy vampires of Terrorists anywhere in the world.

A professional investigation should be conducted to ascertain the perpetrators and planners of this crime and they should be brought to justice (dead if possible).
Its time that India proved to itself that we could do a proffesional job of taking on such terrorists. The politicians should keep out of it.

Kashmir, was always a part of India… even Pakistan was a part of India. Why does this sudden claim to kasmir arise? You indcate that people in Kashmir have gone missing. Have they been missing since always? Did the Indian government and police always have something against Kashmiris? No. Not at all. This happened after Pakistan corrupted the minds of the locals in the name of religion and a demand for a new country came up. India,or any other nation, will not give in to the demands of anyone wanting to reak off into a separate country in the name of religion or race. Remember the time when all the movies were shot in Kashmir? What happened to those times? Kashmir was the most coveted tourist destination in India.

All was changed by Pakistan. And Indian government did not give in to the demand and had to stop this as then issues like Khalistan had come up.

I do not agree to senseless killings, and all kisslings are senseless. But the army and the police did have the job of keeping a country together.

I am afraid but this war will continue till Pakistan stops supporting this with money and minds.

Sidney- I agree and respect that the Quaran condemns the killing of people… but can you explain why most of the bombers are followers of Islam? Why this intolerence and the tendency to respond to opposition by force and bombings? Do you not get the sese that today it has come to a point where it is Islam ( or atleast the wrong version of Islam) versus the rest of the world?

9/11, London Bombings, Egypt Bombings, Islamabad Bombings and all the Indian bombing of late… how do you explain this and justify this?

As a mumbaikar (bombayite) i feel disgusted when i see this happen to my city. This is a filthy war between the terrorists and the politicians and innocent sufferers are regular people like us. This dastardly act cannot be justified. The blame game between the politicians will continue. Their speeches will be the same tape recorded speeches which they must’ve by now rote learned and just blurt it out like a puppet. Nothing will happen untill and unless concrete action is not taken against these infiltrators.

They came in speed boats alighted from a local mother ship at a place like Gateway of India which is a very very high security zone what with naval officers quarters and bases situated right there. No one saw them ? We had a sleeping Navy. They went to the Taj started shooting incessantly went to Oberoi (Trident) to Nariman bhavan and our police officers ran behind them with Laathis (bamboo sticks) in their hands. No latest weapons to combat their hi-tech ammunitions ?? in the bargain we lost 125 lives and still counting. In the midst of all this mayhem we have the PM visiting Mumbai. Listen Mr. PM, we dont want you. Please just stay the hell out of here. We dont need you. All our police officers have to run behind your entourage to cover you why should they be wasting their time behind a leader who looks at larger international goals but is unable to solve volatile situations in your own home. You are a bad leader Mr. Singh actually you’ve terribly failed.

Please pray for all the hostages stuck up in various parts of the Trident and the Nariman bhavan that they all return home safely and there are no more casualties. Amen…

sidney, the problem is that islam is inherently violent religion. it has a history of violence, plundering, forceful conversions in asia and africa. majority of muslims i know, and they are quite a few in various parts of asia, africa, europe and middle-east, are ultra-sensitive to their identity, their ideology. theres nothing wrong in it, but the problem arises when this ideology encourages them to take a 15-century interpretation of the world. no easy solutions here, but kashmir problem is also due to this islam ideology, that is inherently radical. more hindu pandits have been displaced/killed in kashmir than the kashmiri muslims. so your argument is ridiculous.

This is the time to ACT, not to Talk/Promises that political leaders’ habit. Action should be taken in its strongest way that a terorist should think of before he goes for killing innocents.
An International Law should be established to face with terrorists. There should not be any compromise with terrorists. They should not have the right to live. They should kill after the strongest punishment by the International Law that should be established immediately. People should also provide all necessary helps to the Police/Military/Commandos etc. to save their Nations.

I am writing from Sri Lanka and wanted to share some thouhts on this tragic incident as we have been suffering from this kind of terorist activities for over 2o years. The time has come to a point where whole world should unit to battale against tererroism. In what ever country it occurs, in what ever form it occurs it has the capability to effect each and every individual in this world.

India seems to blame Paksitan over the matter and even if I dont know the story clearly I belive that we all can agree to the point that one country should not use or provide assistance to terorists to attack another country. This reminds me what India did some timeback in Sri Lanka helping Tamil Tigers. India had to pay the price for it later.

Today Sri Lankan goverment is carring out a huge offesive opperation against LTTE. LTTE is the most deadliest terorist outfit in the South Asia. It was reported that Some Indian Politicians specially in Tamilnadu have rasised their voice over thease opperations by Great Sri Lankan soldiars. Vast majourity of People in Sri Lanka fear about an indian intervention to the war in Sri Lanka as what has happened in the past.

As stated earlier tragedy that occurred in Mumbai will show you only glimpse of how brutal terrorism is. Therefore my dear friends in India, Pakistan and all over the world this is the time we should come together in a one voice to battle terrorism.

First, my deepest condolences and sympathies go out to all the victims of this cowardly, yet brutal act of terrorism.

Secondly, to majority of peace loving Muslims: We need to strongly and unequivocally condemn these acts of violence and hope and pray that the perpetrators / planners rot in hell. At the same time, we need to realize that we do not need to apologize for the brutal actions of this radicalized and violent fringe of society that have nothing in common with the values or the principles that we hold dear.

Third, Muslims need to resist any temptation to attribute these attacks to the many legitimate injustices their people may have been subjected to. The issues of the treatment of Muslims in Kashmir, the persecution of the Muslim minority within India, etc. are all legitimate issues of concern and deserve attention. Yet, the actions of these terrorists are truly the selfish acts of people that falsely take on the banner of the oppressed as a convenient cover for their brutal quest for power. For Muslims to cede any control over the debate of ideas to these rigid, ignorant ideologues would be a serious mistake, and a serious step back for Muslim countries and communities as a whole.

Fourth, for all those promoting militancy, intolerance or more violence in reaction to the current provocation, I say be careful what you wish for. Corrupting your soul with hate instead of resolve, and compromising your principles and values for the sake of revenge, will play right into the hands of these monsters. India, at this juncture, needs to hold steady to its democratic ideals and continue to make progress towards applying the rule of law universally to all its citizens.

Lastly, it is obvious that the cancer that perpetrated the attacks of 9/11, among others, has relocated itself from safety of the confines of radicalized Taliban regime of Afghanistan to the lawless Tribal Areas of Pakistan. This cancer has to be rooted out and eliminated and if the Pakistani Army is not up to the task, then the World community at large needs to develop and deploy a solution to address the issue. And while we are doing this, we need to do something about all the other conflicts that are raging in the World, from all the wars in Africa and the tremendous trauma and loss of life they are causing, to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and the Kashmiri struggle for independence, that due to our inability to stop them, are continuing to add fuel to an already raging inferno of hate and intolerance.

If we who live in comfort do not feel the anger when innocent muslims are killed in their homes by foreigners who wants to police the world, then we should not be surprised if our innocents are murdered for no reason but pure radicalism and hatred. People just doesn’t care these days. The anger and contempt for injustice is not there anymore. In my native country, a lot of union leaders, social workers, leftists, etc. disappear without a trace. Their huge posters which shouts of their disappearance are along major thoroughfares. But nobody cares. They are too busy acquiring and and acquiring more. And for those of us who care, we are ashamed to show that anger for injustice.

We only see our innocents being murdered. Have we seen theirs? Are we angry and grieve only for our innocents? Are we not in the least inclined to be angry and feel grieved for their innocents being murdered in the first place? Do these people come from a peaceful place where their family tree is not pruned or cut off? Are we too stupid to think that these people became radicals because we treated them as true friends and have not tried to wipe them out of the face of the earth for the past 2000 years?

If we show anger and grief if these people spray innocent civilians of countries who have the sanction of the coalition of the willing to inflict colateral damage on their innocent civilians, are we not selective in our show of emotion when their innocent civilians are bomb to smitherins because their next door neighbor has a link to Al Qaeda?

People like Sydney are the typical muslims that have made this world a hell. They are here talking about injustice to the kashmiri muslims but they forget what they have done to the thousands and thousands of Kashmiri Pandits (Hindus). They talk about atrocities by Indian troops, buut they forget the fact that terrorists killed thousands of kashmiris not the indian troops. It’s because of the presence of large number of troops in Kashmir that militants are not able to infiltrate easily across the boarder otherwise we would have seebn more and more mayhem like Mumbai occurring every day. When these so called troubled Kashmiris come to echo their plight, I wonder what freedom means to them. What is that they have not been given by this country that other states have got? It’s their stupid selfish ideology preached in the name of Islam that life of thousands of Indians have become a joke.

First of all – it is a tragic event and I feel sorry for my fellow Indians.

Second, dont blame always on Pakistan. This is a long running tradition of Indians to blame on every single incident to ISI & Pakistan. You people said the Samjhota Express bombing was done by ISI – check consult the history of your media – they blamed 100% on Pakistan and who was the culprit? Indian Army Colonel – shame on you. Being a Pakistani, we are also facing these kind of terrorist activities in our country, but check our media, never blame directly to India like what I checked on Indian Media with something really silly/childish stuff. Terrorists have cell phone – receiving calls from Pakistan, they have Pakistan made hand grenades – come on man, the also had AK 47, made in Russia, does in means Russia is involved in this? This is all fishy business by your politicians – let the investigations begin, you will hear a different story.

Another point, Terrorist have no religion. Whatever you did in Ahmedabad, was in Hindi Religion? I am sure not. But your extremist Hindu brothers think, this is your religion. Please don’t try to blame Islam as well. I have 100s of examples about Hindu brutality. Dont try to be smart enough to show your anger and utilize the situation against Muslims of India. After all they are your loving countrymen.

People like sanc and his muslim brothers actually believe that they have right to kill all non-muslims (Because their Koran says so- No proof needed). But then they also come here to jusitfy that innocents are being killed in retaliation of killing innocent. Is this justification really needed? No, you don’t need to justify it ‘sanc’. It’s all right on your behalf.

Last 2000 year of history is evident that no body has done more damage to humanity than Muslims. Consistently, where ever they have gone, they have found justification for killing, maiming, torturing, raping innocents in the name of service to their Allah. Like parasites, they have wiped out the natives of the land where ever they have grew. Example is Kashmiri Pandits. And thousand other examples. And they come crying foul if civilzed society is cleaning up the savage mess of Taliban. I was no Muslim hater. But I feel that I am turning into one. And I fear that I am not the only one. Time will come soon when ‘worshipers of Devil’ will pay the price.

I am Ali Asad from Pakistan. Like India and every other country that is victom of terrorism, Pakistan is also facing terrorism. We also cried on the departure of our beloved ones. Unfortunatly we are still engaged in the blame game. To those who gave different reasons (directly or indirectly), there is no justification for such a cowardly act. Moreover Blame game is also not a solution of the problem. I think we should look forward for the solution collectively in a more friendly atmosphere.

To Tahir – Indian may be wrong once or may be more than once in blaming Pakistan but please keep your sincerity to yourself. World doesn’t need proof for this fact that Pakistan is the biggest source of terrorism in this world.

And Pakistani media can’t blame India because we don’t export terrorism to world.

It sounds very forward looking thought that terrorist don’t have a religion ( ya, In strict sense of religion, it’s true). But then, Islam is the only religion(not really a religion in any true sense of the word) that preaches kill every non-muslim?

If Muslims are really very sincere on proving that their religion preaches love then they should start an army that fights against Taliban and they should try to re-establish (the so called) real meaning of Jihad.

Nobody has a right to kill anybody. But neither do you have the right to debase an entire people/religion based on your own personal prejudices. You just prove that extremism or extremist viewpoints are not exclusive to any particular race or religion.

Yeah, there are enough Muslims in India to terrorize anyway; who needs to worry about the rest of the world, right?

“…Islam is the only religion(not really a religion in any true sense of the word) that preaches kill every non-muslim?”

Yeah, like you’ve got a PhD in Comparative Religion and Islamic Studies, right? Anything taken out of context is irrelevant. What you state is simply false. Don’t worry, spreading hate is good – tit for tat, right?

“If Muslims are really very sincere on proving that their religion preaches love then they should start an army that fights against Taliban…”

Indeed, sometimes I also think that way. But sometimes, I think preaching love to the Taliban is the solution. As long as the Western and Pakistani armies fight them, they are going to terrorize us. If they terrorize us, we have to kill them. I don’t claim to have an answer to the problem.

“…and they should try to re-establish (the so called) real meaning of Jihad.”

To Ahad: I, very much respect your sound reasoning and I appreciate it and I would try not to become an extremist. But thousand of your muslim brothers as a member of al-qaeda and what not, are bent upon proving you wrong. And it’s not out of blue that I have started blaming a particular religion. The reasons are evident every where.

look anyone that try’s to understand a terriost is an idiot, you cannot reason with them, you cannot neg. with them, you must kill them, or they will kill you, simple as that, stop trying to understand, its a waste of time, fact is they hate us, and we should react and wipe them off the face of the earth

Since people of any group are always going to be much more concerned when members of their own group are the targets of violence than about people in other groups, when anyone from one group goes as far as to resort to terrorism, it should surprise no one that it will lead to a call to make these acts impossible, even if doing so involves unjustly causing difficulties or hazards to innocent people belonging to the group out of which the terrorists came.

What advice can I give the Muslims of the world? Don’t make heroes of terrorists. Don’t encourage attitudes that lead to terrorism, such as treating non-Muslims with less than full equality. Cooperate fully with the Western nations’ efforts to hunt down the terrorist leaders.

Playing political games is only going to make it more likely that innocent people in Muslim lands will suffer the tragedy of war. The weak may have to put up with problems; the strong can, and will, defend themselves if provoked.

Believe me I understand that there is a lot of blame to go around for the current mess and that a lot of it lies with the failure of Muslim countries to better address the issues of poverty and inequality withing their own borders. I will not be the first person to state that Pakistan, as an example, needs to get its act together, somehow elect more competent and honest politicians, keep the army out of politics and embark on massive program to educate and improve the quality of life for the majority of its people. Unfortunately, the rising percentage of people living in abject poverty in Pakistan makes larger parts of the society more susceptible to the corrosive effects of the ideologues, extremists, and zealots. But, India, as it makes its remarkable and admirable progress towards becoming a major world power, needs to respect the rights of minorities and keep extremist tendencies (from all parts of society) in check as well. Hate feeds on hate, and the terrorists of the variety that are responsible for the recent attacks know this, and are bent on fomenting the seeds of hate within India, not for the benefit of Hindus, Muslims or otherwise, but to further their own twisted, delusional, and definitely evil goals.

What kind of society that these people want to make. Squirting accid to innocent child girls? Is this really their goal no matter what is the reasoning? Do Girls always have to be secluded with cover boxes(habaya?). In the meantime some of the women domestics worker(slaves?) is freely raped in their homes in Saudi, etc, or stoned to death when she is reporting being raped. Ask God for really forgiveness before those people die and meet God.

to my indian bretheren,today i stand with u in unity.I am a pakistani and a muslim. my ancestory is from india, so i will always love india no matter what. I know you are angry and i know u want to seek revenge and i don’t blame u for wanting to take it out on us. But know this, we too have been attacked by these so called “muslims”. just last month in islamabad a hotel was attacked where many lives were lost and there are daily attacks all thru out pakistan, where people are killed. so we do feel ur pain. yes there are elements within pakistan that are to blame for these attacks, but by blaming an entire country and a religion which has billions of followers is not right either. there have been hundereds and thousands of muslims who have been killed in iraq,afghanistan, pakistan,africa, etc. who have been killed by so called “muslims” and non-muslims both. yes there are feelings of anger and resentment amongst many of us, but no cause is great enough that justifies these actions. stay strong my brothers, unite amongst all your people, Hindus and Muslims both. and despite what the media says and what our corrupt government officals say and do or what the garbage ISI says and does, we pakistanis support you in your efforts to rebuild and recover.today I have a indian flag that I hung up outside my house, because today the entire world is Indian.

To everyone who has posted something:
There are many different causes for terrorism, ranging from injustices in Kashmir and India to brainwashing and inculcated hatred. Even just reading the comments on this article, one can see the dichotomy in views between different people. Comments like “Islam is an inherently violent religion” only further tension between religions and inhibit justice and understanding between peoples. In other words, the blame game doesn’t work when applied to cross-religious and international conflicts. I totally agree with whoever p0sited that terrorists and their leaders are powerhungry and seek only to promulgate their twisted ideology. The fact is that whether or not you dislike muslims or love muslims, they will never go away. There will always be muslims and indians and brits on this planet, so we must make a concentrated effort to rid ourselves of prejudices, especially when we don’t know we have them, or we think we’re always right, in order to be a part of a cohesive environment dedicated to espousing liberty for all.

The responsibility for the mayhem unleashed on Mumbai lies solely with the coward indian govt at the centre. It has decided as policy not to act against the terroist for mere muslim votes as elections are nearing. So many attacks & so less response.
The real problem is fact that hindus do not vote on narrow religious lines & thus not considered a vote bank. Terrorist find support from cabinet ministers in india. Only heaven can save india.

India has become so vulnerable to terrorist activities.Every now and then, we hear a terrorist attack on one city or the other.it has become really dangerous for the people of india, but still i guess at this time we should stand together and fight against terrorism. i dont understand why our intelligence and the government is not able to crack the attacks before they take place. aare the terrorists smarter than the intelligence people? definitely they are.But their smartness is taking the toll of innocent lives and that is why i hope the government and the political parties take some steps so as to fight terrorism.
its really disgusting to see that each and every time the terrorist belongs to a particular religion and when they take the lives of the innocent people, there are also people from their community and then they say they are fighting for the rights and welfare of their community members….i dont see any betterment in thier ideologies for their community members who are innocent.
this time in mumbai, they have just taken this heinous act to a different height……..i hthink its time to take very strong steps against terrorists otherwise our country would keep becoming hteir target

This is Hilarious! When tragedy strikes its always interesting to see how the human psyche reacts to such catastrophic events. No one even wants to address the root cause of terrorism, rather just blame the most convenient of adversaries. You automatically get to see the raw emotion, the secular hatred, and convenience of revenge. I don’t rely on any report or media claim that these terrorists were Pakistani. All I know, that India has more then 1 billion people and I’m guessing there is good chance, that two to three hundred of them, would collectively carry out such atrocities, regardless of race or religion. Lets address terrorism’s root cause, and not just make assumptions that this is some sort of religious ritual. Too spread such garbage is an act of intellectual terrorism.

As some have mentioned, I think it would be worthwhile to consider what would bring a large group of people to sponsor such a violent attack on civilians. I suggest that at the bottom we will always find greed and the readiness to inflict violence on others to steal what they own.

It would be folly to deny that western countries have long been, and currently are, in the process of raping others countries for their wealth and sponsoring wars around the world to help them get at it. That citizens of these other countries should feel the need to fight back is understandable. It really bothers me (a westerner) to live among so many of my kind that see so much evil in other countries but are unable to see that much of the large scale evil on our planet is the direct result of their own actions.

If you love your neighbour and seek ways to live in harmony with him he will probably not throw a grenade at you. For some reason this is very hard for a typical westerner to understand.

I’m no expert on relations between Pakistan and India but I’m sure their difficulties are based on similar issues.

My heart goes out to all those involved in violence around the world. The instigators suffer just as much as the victims.

It is a very tragic for us. Mumbai is under terrorist activities in these days due to the lack of Indian intelligence efficiencies. When any bomb blasts or any terrorist activities in India, Indian government and media, without any hesitation and proper investigations blaming to Pakistan. We are not understood as Pakistani, why India is blaming us.
This drama which name is MUMBAI IN BLOOD had created a serious horror in Indian military intelligence and their Fascist patrons in Hindu Zionists. Something had to be done to divert the attention of the world and Indian public from acts of terrorism by Hindu Hardliners. …..Then comes the Mumbai slaughter. Even when the shootings were going on in hotels, Indian media and army were blaming Pakistan for the attacks. The game is clear and threatening. The Indian Intelligence have diverted the global attention towards another issue where they would blame Pakistan for this slaughter.
In the early coming days, Pakistan should prepare for a high risk threat response as Indians would go to any limit to open another front against Pakistan to divert the local and world attention from their internal fascist elements in Hindu Zionists and military intelligence.
I think government conceals their weaknesses to Indian peoples. Traditionally, Indian government, politicians and people are understood Pakistan and Pakistanis is our enemy from 1947 to till. This is not fact; we are peaceful Pakistanis and also our religion. May Allah protect Pakistan from all enemies.

What happened in Mumbai is as sorrowful for we Pakistanis, as it is for Indians. Terrorism is joint enemy for both nations and we should counter it together with tolerance, without listening to our govts. who always blame each other, in order to divert attention of their own people. A common Pakistani and a common Indian, whether Hindu or Muslim, know that security lapse by our authorities produce ways for terrorists to do their job. For example, failure of protection of Babri Masjid by then UP Govt. caused terrorists to destroy the Masjid which became the cause of creation of various jihadi organisations in Bharat to combat those terrorists. Similarly, recent Gujrat violence in which 4,000 Muslims were killed was an act of Gujrat state terrorism. It was witnessed by world. So, reactions of such incidences are of course unavoidable. What happened in Mumbai seems to be the reaction from those, possibly, whose families would have been badly affected by Gujrat violence.

first of all my condolences to all those whose love ones have died.
i m reading all these comments everyone making about islam. has n e one read the quran. if u have i like toi know where it indicates that islam spread violence
i like to say that i have studied three religions islam christianity and hiduism. if islam is a violent religion then hindus r not better either as they having fights with their own aswell. so i do not know where u get ur information from. u should get urself clarified of facts first as u do not know n e thing.
as for terrorist they have no religion, so calling them muslim or pakistani is wrong. but if u do want to how these terrorists r born u ask urself that questions.
is all the hell WE put them in. as u can read i used WE i m not blaming religion nor a country we should be the blame for letting these terrorists to be born.

If Islam is a religion of peace, why don’t the people in Pakistan tell their people that that is the case. Their people only want to play victim and justify attacks on innocent civilians with trivial facts as noted from Pakistani posters on this board.

Many muslims one hand want to snatch the fruits of science and technology and on the other want to go backward by sending their children to madrassas.

Pakistan is a failed state. There is no option but to eliminate terrorism from Pakistan by U.S. and India forces. It is unfortunate to have come to this but analysts see no other option at this point. We see a disintegration of Pakistan in the near future.

As a catholic and human being of this earth, I am deeply apalled to see some anti-muslim/islam comments on this blog. Whoever wrote these comments are probably ignorant and should open a book and read. Fact. 99% of terrorist are not muslim, there are christian terrorists and hindu terrorists as well. ..so please as i noted earlier, for the sake of this world, please open a book, read it, and get the facts straight before spewing out your garbage.

Since September 11, 2001, Islam and the world of Muslims have been standing center stage on the international media theater. Headlines have often been decorated with words like “Al-Qaeda”, “Muslim”, “Terrorist” and, sometimes reaching back to “Qur’an” or going as basic as “Islam.” Many bombings have raised questions on Islam; is it originally a violent religion? Does it have any ethical concerns for the killing of civilians? Why do Muslims hate USA and Israelis?
The motive of the attack is still not known and it is too early to point fingers the media has started accusing some Jihadi outfit, some unknown group called the Deccan Mujahiddeen who are responsible for this attack. But I suspect that this whole drama is been carried out to divert attention from the Sadhvi Praghya case who is accused of the Malegaon blast. It is the big question mark for us?…. At the same time it is puzzling to know why the terrorist wanted to target British and American passport holders.
1st remember that Mumbai is the financial center of India just as NY is the financial center of America. 2nd this attack was meant to make confusion and fright. Where ever there is confusion and fright, there is a pretext for military action. Don’t be surprised if there is internal involvement within the Indian Government, police or military.

India at this moment has to contain any reactive violence from the fundamentalist Hindus, which is very likely and possible. So India has to condemn that by not blaming Muslims. They have to identify the exact groups.
This is a tragic and horror drama that Indian authorities have organized for Muslims (like the American government organized 9/11 to disgrace Muslims) specially Pakistanis, and once again Indian dupes and fools are not able understand and happy to point their fingers on Muslim Community. But remember this gives an escape to the actual guilty party. We all know that Hindu activists and militants have committed terrorist acts in the past. However, you need to look at the particulars and recognize that there is a problem with terrorism in south Asia coming from Pakistan. Just for the reason that you are Muslim do not feel the need to shift the culpability, we must clash this problem together, terrorists do not serve to help Muslims grounds anywhere.
In short, The Indian government prearranged the whole series of the murderous attacks, including the last one, just in order to discredit Muslims.

Hi,
I would like to mention that I am a hindu residing in India. Hindus are so tolerant, thats the reason Islam and Christainity flourish in India. Pakistan was created only based on religion. So, Mr.Muhammed Tarq, please double check when using words like Hindu Zionists

In my money, we haven’t grown up yet. DO we think once before we say Muslims or Hindus or Christians are terrorist. The 180 odd people died in the recent Mumbai terror attacks included devotees of all these religions. Is tackling of terrorism still a blame game? Or is it just another event that we watch live on TV as it occurs? It was so helpless to see the place where you born burn into flames and the so called leaders (I doubt the definition these days) blaming each other and the security agencies much like their political speeches. The home minister’s resignation was the govt could do as of now. Is it going to solve any purpose? Why can’t the govt come out with a solid plan to counter terrorism? The govt should learn some lessons on professionalism from the terrorists. They inform you much ahead of their act about the attacks and the govt reacts not acts much after the incident. This has been a regular practice in India. After the 9/11 attacks, there is no such incident reported in the US and here in India we forget the bloody act days after the incident with much ease. Also, what about India’s emergency control architecture look like? Looks non-existing. Saw, how they were dealing with the injureds? We dint have the necessary life saving gears to deal with a critical condition. Even if someone comes out injured, it will definitely succumb to its injuries by the time he reaches the hospital. lots of things to do India..lots of things. There is no time to think, its the time to do. Just do it

Being an Indian Muslim i never felt any sort of discrimination from rest of my Indian brothers. Who ever it is either the government or our neighbors has the same respect with the religion i follow. I am really surprised to see so many posts which say that the conditions of Indian Muslims are not good. I feel i would have had this same life even if i were a hiindu.May be every one watches only Kashmir. But just look at the whole India we have the same right to get educated, to vote, to get jobs, to earn, to do our business and to follow our religions as like Hindus. I feel i am in a better situation and environment than if i were in Pakistan or Afghanistan. I don’t think when Indians raise against Muslims in their post they don’t really mean all the Muslims, atleast deep inside their heart. But every one are certainly anger on the Terrorist who have their religion as the reason and hide in Muslim countries. That doesn’t mean that the country altogether is blamed but it is blamed on the Government who has to restrict this, and this is as like people in India blame their leaders for not taking actions against terrorist. May be Muslim or even a Hindu who is a separatist will be discriminated or even ill treated… even by my self. But for the rest India is a better country for Muslims.

I do not agree with that. if this is the case why Pakistan\’s name is coming everywhere ..leave Indians. Pakistan, Afganistan, Iran, Iraq…. These all are Muslim countries and muslim extreamists in these countries are real problems for the world.
These kind of attacks on Indians by Pakistanis is not new for indians. There have been number for incidents like this from last couple of years and always there is a Islamic group which is behind it. See what is happening in Nigeria, number of Christians are killed by Muslims. I am sorry, May be i am wrong but i feel the most dangerous people on this earth are from Islam.

How to Beat The Indian Politician
Section 49-O of the Constitution:
(A Repetition worth a read)
Did you know that there is a system in our Constitution, as per the 1969 Act, in Section “49-O” that a person can go to the polling booth, confirm his identity, get his finger marked and convey to the presiding election officer that he doesn’t want to vote anyone!
Yes such a feature is available, but obviously our seemingly notorious leaders have never disclosed it. This is called “49-O”.
Why should you go and say “I VOTE FOR NOBODY”… because, in a ward, if a candidate wins, say by 123 votes, and that particular ward has received “49-O” votes more than 123, then that polling will be cancelled and will have to be re-polled. Not only that, but the candidature of the contestants will be removed and they cannot contest the re-polling, since people had already expressed their decision on them. This would bring fear into parties and hence look for genuine candidates for their parties for election. This would change the way of our whole political system… it is seemingly surprising why the Election Commission has not revealed such a feature to the public….
Please spread this news to as many as you know… Seems to be a wonderful weapon against corrupt parties in India… show your power, expressing your desire not to vote for anybody, is even more powerful than voting… so don’t miss your chance. So either vote, or vote not to vote (vote 49-O) and pass this info on…
“Please forward this mail to as many as possible, so that we, the people of India , can really use this power to save our nation”. Use your voting right for a better INDIA

Fellow Indians! let’s accept the truth. Our coward vote greedy govt will never go on offensive as far as this terror is concerned. It’ll certainly wait for the anger to die down. Till then, hear the rhetoric.In some days, media attention will shift to fresher TRP friendly themes & we’ll forget, this time too.
We will be afraid of moving out from our homes & Hafiz Muhhamad Saeed will again fearlessly shout in Lahore-’Run India run,lashkar is coming’.
If innocent Indians are dying, they must as cowards have no right to live.